Harvard's Hubris

IT HAD ALL the makings of a sandbox brawl: "I saw it first." "Well he's my best friend." Unfortunately, the voices were not those of toddlers, but of Harvard and Boston officials squabbling over the upcoming visit of South Africa's Nobel Prize winning Bishop Desmond Tutu.

The flap erupted last Friday, when a Boston Globe article quoted two Harvard officials criticizing Mayor Flynn's office for attempting to arrange a Boston appearance for the bishop on the same day he was scheduled to speak at Harvard. News Office stafler Marvin Hightower accused a Flynn aide of "deceiving" Tutu into believing Harvard had okayed a Fancuil Hall appearance and or trying to "steal the thunder" from the scheduled campus visit. Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation which had invited Tutu to Harvard, complained that it would "interfere" with the campus visit if Tutu spoke in Boston as well.

Flynn's office responded with outrage, saying they had arranged the Fancuil Hall visit without any knowledge of the Harvard event. Mayor Flynn publicy accepted a hasty apology drafted by news office head David Rosen, but went on to imply that Boston was better fit to welcome the bishop because the city has divested from firms doing business in the racist state of South Africa while Harvard has not.

It would all be laughable were it not so stupid, and one has to wonder what Bishop Tutu must think of such petty one-upsmanship. It seems clear that the issue centers around a relatively simple and unimportant miscommunication regarding the scheduling of a prominent visitor, without intentional snubs from either side. Yet the incident is unfortunate nonetheless, for it demonstrates a painful insensitivity among Harvard officials on at least two counts.

The first involves Harvard's ever-gingerly relations with the city of Boston. Efforts by Harvard students and administrators to counter the University's image as an elitist occupying army are badly undermined by squabbles such as this one: one condescending remark can make a far deeper local impression than any number of community initiatives.

More troubling still is the inappropriateness of the town gown till given the stature of the visitor and the cause he represents. Tutu was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to win political and economic justice for South Africa's nine million Blacks and "Coloureds," who currently live under the oppressive rule of a minority white government. The urgency of this cause cannot be overstated and it is testimony to its extreme nature that organizations such as the city of Boston have taken the unusual step of corporate divestiture. In fact, the irony of the University's indignant comments toward Flynn's office is that they have focused attention on the contrast between Harvard's and Boston's positions on divestiture, rather than on the distinguished visitor himself.

In his apology to Mayor Flynn, Rosen explained that the University had not known Flynn's office was arranging a visit by Tutu, and that therefore the comments about stealing Harvard's thunder were "inappropriate." But what renders Tutu's appearance appropriate, either in Boston or Harvard or anywhere, has nothing to do with the administrative arrangements behind the visits, but rather the substance of his call for justice for South African Blacks. That is a call which can only thunder more resoundingly the more frequently it is heard.